Maya Schenwar’s book, “Locked Down, Locked Out”, is out today!

We’re delighted to share this message from Maya, a good friend of Chicago Books to Women in Prison:

Hope you are all having a wonderful fall. As many of you know, for the last couple of years, I have been writing a book. And now, bizarrely, it actually exists! It’s called Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, and it is out TODAY (coincidentally, my birthday)!

If you buy it today or anytime during the coming week, I’ll be donating my royalties to Marissa Alexander’s Legal Defense Fund. (Marissa is a Florida survivor of domestic violence who is facing 60 years in prison for firing a warning shot at the wall, to defend herself against her abusive husband.)

So, I have a couple of birthday wishes. I’m hoping you can take these steps, in exchange for my undying love and admiration, which you already have, but still:

“This book has the power to transform hearts and minds…. I turned the last page feeling nothing less than inspired.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Maya Schenwar’s stories about prisoners, their families (including her own), and the thoroughly broken punishment system are rescued from any pessimism such narratives might inspire by the author’s brilliant juxtaposition of abolitionist imaginaries and radical political practices.” —Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete?

“This moving book makes a very important intervention into both the popular understanding and the political discussions about the devastating impact of mass imprisonment. In her riveting descriptions of what happens to individuals and families caught in the long reach of the prison nation, Schenwar makes a compelling case for prison abolition and reinvestment in communities. This book will change both what we understand about injustice and how we work for more logical and effective solutions.” —Beth E. Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation

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IMPORTANT: Learn more before donating booksPlease check with us before organizing a book drive or putting together a donation of more than a few books from your own library. We are well stocked and storage space is limited.

1,022 packages so far in 2019

Last year we sent 4,852 packages to women, as well as trans and nonbinary people, behind bars across the US—nearly 13,500 books and composition books in all. Big thanks to all our supporters because we couldn’t do it without you! (updated March 18, 2019)